Killing Pretty by Richard Kadrey Page B

store?”
    â€œDon’t whine. We’ve been open so little ­people are lined up. We’re making brisk money.”
    â€œWhat’s Death doing?”
    â€œHe’s helping behind the counter.”
    â€œAre you crazy?”
    â€œHe’s putting DVDs in little plastic cases so customers can take them home. I think even an angel can handle that. Besides, I’m sick of being alone with him watching kiddie movies.”
    â€œOkay, but the first sign of anything weird, the first unfamiliar face that tries to get in, you lock the place down and call me, understand?”
    â€œI can’t hear you. I’m doing actual work. Have fun sitting on your fat ass all night.”
    He hangs up.
    Candy is snapping pictures of the street through the windshield.
    â€œHow are the kids?” she says.
    â€œI should have bound and gagged them before we left.”
    â€œYou’re such a good dad.”
    I watch her with the camera, playing with the angles, popping the zoom in and out. She’s having too much fun, like she thinks she’s David Hemmings in Blow-­Up .
    â€œSince when are you a photographer?”
    She snaps away.
    â€œSince today. Julie gave me a Vigil point-­and-­shoot. It does the work and I make the art.”
    â€œWhy didn’t I get one?”
    She moves the camera just low enough that I can see her eyes.
    â€œJulie says you break things.”
    I don’t reply, just let her shoot. It’s distracting her from turning the music up again.
    â€œSo, some old lady thinks her neighbors are dealers,” Candy says.
    â€œThat’s what Julie told me. We’re supposed to get hard photographic proof of their evil ways.”
    â€œI’ve hardly seen anyone go by. They must be lousy dealers.”
    â€œOurs isn’t to judge. Ours is to show up and collect a paycheck for the night.”
    â€œWhy didn’t the old lady just call the cops?”
    â€œApparently, she did. They sent a ­couple of patrol cars to do roll-­bys, but they didn’t see anything. I guess she wants proof before she calls back again.”
    Candy rolls down her window and takes some shots of a coyote running up the winding street.
    â€œShe must have money to throw around to pay for an all-­nighter.”
    â€œGod favors the wellborn and the well connected.”
    â€œThat sounds like something Vidocq would say.”
    â€œI stole it from him.”
    A ­couple in matching tracksuits strolls by, walking their dog.
    â€œJulie says there’s no statute of limitations on Lurkers.”
    Candy nods, checks some of her shots in the LED screen on the back of the camera.
    â€œYeah,” she says. “I really blew it, didn’t I?”
    â€œYou didn’t blow it. Mason blew things up when he dosed you. He could have killed you, but he knew ruining your life would be more fun.”
    â€œI didn’t even know the guy.”
    â€œThat made it even more fun. Dragging you into his random craziness.”
    â€œBut it wasn’t random, was it? Before, he fucked with Alice because she was with you, and then he came after me.”
    â€œHe liked to get to me through ­people I cared about.”
    She takes shots of the other cars and a lone cat sitting on the trunk of a nearby Lexus.
    â€œToo bad he’s dead. I wouldn’t mind hurting him.”
    â€œIt sounds kind of lame to say, but I’m sorry for everything that’s happened.”
    She shrugs.
    â€œ ’Course there’s another way of looking at things. I mean, making me crazy, making you angry and paranoid. If we were smart, we’d have broken up by now. But we didn’t,” says Candy. “The way I see it, we won.”
    â€œMe too.”
    â€œI’m hungry. Did you bring snacks?”
    â€œI forgot them.”
    â€œMoron.”
    â€œYeah.”
    A door slams somewhere up the street. Maybe a second later, three men in identical